Julius diners



J. DINERS.

MEANS FOR PROTECTING SHlPS FROM TORPEDOES.

APPLlCATiON FILED AUG-22,1918.

Patented June 3, 1919.

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JULIUS DINERS, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

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Application filed August 22,1918. Serial No. 250,953. i

To all whom it may concern: Be it known that I, JULIUS DINERS, a citi- V zen of the United States of America, residing at New York, in the county of liew York and State of New York, have 1nvented certain new and useful improvements in Means for Protecting Ships from Torpedoes, of which the following is a specification. V

The present invention relates to the protection of voyaging ships from torpedoes projected from submarines.

The principal object of my invention is to provide simple and efiective guards at the sides of the ship which will be capable of "deflecting the course of a torpedo and prevent the torpedo from reaching the ship.

Another object of my invention is to so construct the guards that they will be buoyant bodies and therefore not add to the load of the ship. V

' A further object of my invention is to so arrange the guards so that they will not interfere with the speed of the ship, with her ability to maneuver nor with thelaunching 'oflife boats or rafts.

A still further object of my invention is to attach the'guards to the ship'so that they can be easily and readily detached whenever desired and on the detonation of the terpedo will be liable to become detached from the ship.

And a still further object of my invention is to provide guards which at the same time will serve as stabilizers for the ship in a heavy sea. 7

With these and other objects in view which will hereinafter appear more clearly from the detaileddescription of my invention, my new guard, of which Iemploy one on each side of theship, consists of a buoyant body or a buoyantly supported body which can be easily and readily attached to the ship and which is so curved laterally and downwardly'th'at, at any point .of the surface of the guard, the latter will be sub stantially tangent to the warhead of the terpedo when the latter reaches the guard so that the torpedo will be caused to ride up the curved surface of the guard and will be prevented from striking the guard with its firing pin. These guards are adapted to be submerged in the water, a distance sufficient to cover the entire depth in which a torpedo may operate. At the same time the guards extending a considerable distance away from the sides'of the ship will, in case of the detonation of the torpedo caused by friction while it is checked in motion, serve to intervene between the ship and the tor- 'pedo, so that only they will be destroyed or torn off the ship while the ship will remain intact and be allowed to proceed.

My invention will be more fully understood by reference to the accompanying drawing in which similar reference characters denote corresponding parts and in which Figure 1 is a front elevation of a ship and of my device attached to it; Fig.

'2 is aside elevation thereof on a reduced scale; Fig. 3' is a cross section of a vessel equipped with my device somewhat medlfled in construction; Fig. l shows the device lowered to free the ship and Fig. 5'

shows a more or less diagrammatic view of a further modification of the device.

Referring specifically to the drawing 1 denotes a vessel or ship of the usual construction, preferably of a standardized shape and size. The new device comprises principally two wings 2, 3 extending one along each side of' the vessel. These wings are curved surfaces which project laterally and downwardly and adapted to be submerged in the water, a depth calculated to cover the maximum depth in which a torpedo may operate. The curvature of each wing surface is cal 'culated to be such that when the wings are 'in normal position the wing at any point will be substantially tangent to the warhead of the torpedo when the latter reaches the guard. In Fig. 1 the warhead l of the torpedo 5 is shown to be tangent with the surface of the guard, By reason of such construction, the torpedo will be prevented from striking with its firing pin 6. After striking with its head the surface of the wing, the torpedo will continue to propel itself, but. instead of piercing the wing ,will ride up the same and thereby be deflected 1n its course given it by 1ts gyroscopic mechanism.

The wings 2 and 8 may be made in form of grates as shown in Figs. 1 and 2 or as otherwise suitably perforated surfaces or may be formed as solid plates 2, 3 as shown in Fig. 3.

The wings may be suitably fixed to a frame work 7 which may snugly engage around the sides and the bottom of the ship (Figs. 1, 2 and 3) and which by flexible or suitable means 8 may be detachably fixed to the ship.

By providing air tanks 9 suitably support ed on or suspended from the frame 7 or the rear surfaces of the wings (Figs. 1 and 2) the guards will be rendered buoyant so that they will not add to the load of the ship. Instead of providing special tanks, the space 10 between each wing andthe corresponding side of the frame 7 may be closed all around and serve as an air container, as shown in Figs. 3 and 4.

WVhen it is desired to release the frame and wings or guards from the ship, the air of greatly reducing the rolling motion of a vessel in a heavv sea and thus serve as stabiliZers. V

The frame 7, however, may be entirely dispensed with and the wings 2 and 3 can be suspended directly from the ship in such a way that when a wing is struck by a torpedo it will of itself become detached from the ship. Such construction is moreor less diagrammatically shown in Fig. 5. Here the wings 12 and 13, are hooked at 14: or otherwise so suspended from the sides of the ship that when one of them is struck by a torpedo it will, upon the detonation of the torpedo, be thrown off the hook or the like. Each of the wings may be formed at its free endwith an air tank 15 so as to be buoyant.

W hile the primary object of the wings is to serve'a's deflectors, it is clear, that even if they fail to deflect the torpedo by reason of the rocking movement of the ship or for any other reason and. will cause thetorpedo to explode, the explosion will not affect the ship sinc the explosion will take place a considerable distance away from the ship.

As the wings are not rigidly but detachably fixed to the ship, all that may happen is that the wings when struck by the torpedo will be thrown or torn off the ship without materially affecting the latter.

The wings being made buoyant there will be no additional load on the ship to carry the Wings. The plates of whichthe wings are made may be comparatively thin so as to but little interfere with the maneuvering of the s 1p.

Vhile I have shown and described in detail the construction of my new device, I of course do not wish to restrict myself to the same, for anyone skilled in the art and familiar with the principles of the operation of torpedoes may readily modify the construction without departing from the principle of my invention.

WVha-t I claim and desire to secure by Le* ters Patent is:

1. In combinationv with a ship,a device for protecting the same from torpedoes, consisting of a framework conforming in shape with the sides or bottom of the ship and adapted to removably engage the latter, wing shaped deflector members projecting from said frame and curved so as to be substantially tangent to the warhead of an approaching torpedo, andair tanks for rendering the device buoyant, said air tanks being capable of being filled with water to allow the lowering or submerging of'the device.

In combination wit-h a ship, a buoyant device for protecting the. same from torpedoes, consisting of a frame adapted to re-' movably engage around the ship, wing shaped. members projectingfrom said frame laterally and: downwardly and serving as deflectors for approaching torpedoes, the space formed betweensaid wings and saidv frame being closed all around to form air tanks and a pipe leading into said air tanks and enabling the filling of the latter with water to lower or submerge said device after its detachment from the ship.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature in: presence of two witnesses JULIUS DINERS. WVitnesses:

FRED J GRIESMER, MAX D. ORDMANN.

Copies of. this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. C. 

